...The core of the financial problem is that bankers won't make loans when they cannot properly evaluate risk. As I've noted before, the credit collapse was triggered by the subprime mortgage debacle, and the contagion spread to all sectors of the banking world. There are so many loans that are wrapped up in so many "repackaged" aggregations and "investment vehicles" that nobody really knows who owns what debts, and exactly by what underlying assets they are backed. The CDO and SIV pundits use the term "marked to market." But I have coined the term marked to mystery. That is a better description of what is going on. The global credit market is now like a giant mushroom farm--where everyone is kept in the dark and fed horse manure. There are mountains of mystery debts held by countless corporations, governments, and institutions. In this unprecedented credit environment, ultra-low interest rates will not revive the sagging economy. The bankers are still petrified, and who can blame them? We recently learned that even the credit ratings agencies were in on the sub-prime swindle. So the bankers can longer trust the word of the "expert analysts" at Moody's and S&P...